The university said the move was being taken as part of efforts to drive a culture of job creation across the campus and in the capital.

Trinity Provost Dr Patrick Prendergast said the announcement demonstrated the university’s commitment to investing in innovation and entrepreneurship

“We want the message to go out to students in Ireland and globally that Trinity is a university that educates and motivates students to create jobs, as well as to get them,’ said Dr Prendergast.

“Working together, higher education institutions and Government can create the environment that draws the research and enterprise communities into partnerships, promoting innovation, entrepreneurship, and new business creation.”

It is expected that the sod on the new business school will be turned next summer and it will be completed in 2017.

The announcement was made at the Trinity Global Graduate Forum (TGGF) which drew over 100 of the university’s alumni from across the world.

The two-day forum, held in Trinity, involved graduates being invited from across the world to formulate plans to tackle some of the major challenges facing modern higher education, including funding, reputation, growth, technology and education.

The overall development, spanning some 13,000 square metres with six storeys above ground and three below, will include a 600-seat auditorium, restaurant spaces for 200 people, public space where students can meet and ideas exchange, ‘smart’ classrooms with the latest digital technology, and a rooftop conference room.

The new Entrepreneurship and Innovation Hub, co-located with the Trinity School of Business, will provide space for prototyping and company incubation projects and academic and administrative offices, the university said.

Trinity said it has raised significant funding towards the cost of the project from philanthropic sources. It claimed plans to raise more, privately and publicly, are well advanced.

Other revenue sources include self-generated income from fee-paying business programmes, income from the sale of off-campus office space and the leasing of retail units and student apartments.

Dr Jim Quinn, Head of the School of Business, said the development would build on Trinity’s tradition of providing business education in the city centre which stretches back to 1925.